MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Nether had I China until I saw one used by Hand Tool Rescue on Youtube.

[Stanley]

What was this bloke's job title?

[chinatyke]

Poacher!

[Gloria]

Poacher!

love it.

[Stanley]

A very bad one if he was..... No that's not the answer.

[chinatyke]

He was called a rabbit catcher, but if he caught big ones he was known as Hare Dresser or in Germany as Heir Dresser.

[Stanley]

Imaginative China but not right.... Sorry!

[Gloria]

Fur hat maker?

[Stanley]

That's a clever one Gloria but sorry, no.

[chinatyke]

Is a salesman on a bike a pedlar?

[Tizer]

Master Warrener?

[Stanley]

Well done Pewter. You know how I love archaic words and yes, that was this man's job description, 'Warrener' and in effect they were farming rabbits. A trade that went back to feudal times.
Next one?

[Marilyn]

( think we would have referred to him as “The Rabbito”...rings a bell)

[Stanley]

Sorry Peter, that typo is too good to correct...



What's the name for the occupation of these men and why? Also, what would they be called in the US.

[Cathy]

I just know them as Navvies.
I thought the US called them Navvies as well. ?

[Bodger]

linesmen

[Stanley]

Sorry but no to both.

[Wendyf]

Platelayers?

[Cathy]

Could it be Hitmen?

[Stanley]

Sorry Cathy but Wendy is on the scent.
Wendy, so far so good, yes that's what we call them in Britain. Now tell me why they are called that and what would they be called in the US? (You thought it would be easy? )

[Big Kev]

Gandy Dancers?

[Wendyf]

No idea what they call them in the US but aren't the plates the bits that hold the sections of track together. I remember fish plates being an important component of my brother's model railway and having lived close to the Edinburgh to Carlisle railway in Scotland the platelaying machine occasionally woke us at night with its noise and lights.

[Stanley]

Too close to ignore. Kev is right with the US name, Gandy Dancers. There is a theory that the name Gandy came from a manufacturer of equipment used to lay track.
Plate layers comes from the fact that the first wagon ways weren't railways but cast iron plates joined together in which normal road wheels ran so the first installers and maintainers were called plate layers.
Next one?

[Stanley]

What's going on here..... Job description?

[Marilyn]

Wheelwright? Making a wheel centre for a cart axle?